Posted in: Comics, Image | Tagged: invincible, robert kirkman, skybound

The "Invincible Effect" Adds 500,000 Orders Onto Image Comics Variants

The "Invincible Effect" Adds 500,000 Of Orders Onto Image Comics Invincible Team-Up Variant Covers for March 2026

We're going to call it, and label the latest surge of interest for new titles from Image Comics, the Invincible Effect, named after the Image Comics series by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, published by Image Comics and now through Skybound, which has been adapted into a successful Amazon Prime Video series.

Because it's not the first time something like this has happened. Just as when Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard's The Walking Dead went from bestselling comic book to pop culture phenomenon back in the 2010s. Now we're seeing it again with Invincible, the latest of Kirkman's series that has rocketed to zeitgeisty awareness and become part of the cultural tapestry. As with Walking Dead, Image Comics captured lightning in a bottle a second time with a Kirkman book and has managed to harness its success to boost the rest of its line, even if it's a couple of decades after its original publication. We're hearing from our source inside Image Comics that the publisher's clever Invincible Team-Up campaign, aptly timed right on the atom-eve of Season 4 streaming, has generated nearly half a million copies sold of other Image Comics. Spread across 35 issues, that's an additional 14,000 orders on each issue. It is possible some of those titles didn't receive 14,000 copies in the first place. Either way. Every title is getting a four -or five-figure bump to its orders.

And has seen collectors pick up variant covers for some of its lesser-known, up-and-coming series like Wes Craig's Kaya, about which we heard much buzz from retailers at ComicsPro recently, Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok's Rook Exodus, one of the most uber-detailed action books on the stands outside of Planet Death, or Aubrey Sitterson and Jed Dougherty's Free Planet. The argument could certainly be made (and is)  that many people will simply bag and board those Invincible Team-Ups without ever cracking the cover, but there's also the point of view that those covers are advertisements for the series as a whole. And Image Comics just used the draw of Invincible characters to get people to buy the very advertisements for cold hard cash (or debit card taps) that advertise the rest of its comics to collectors and readers. And as we have seen, of late, collectors seem very minded to trying out new indie books such as D'Orc and White Sky at Image, and Nectar, Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre, Is Ted OK and Murder Drones outside of it.

Collectible or not (and many of them will be, especially with likely lower print runs on some of the above-mentioned titles), any Invincible fan who enters a comic shop with cash in hand will have a hard time overlooking those books, retailers will have an easy talking point for them…

Kirkman dropped some sage commentary in his keynote speech to retailers at ComicsPro recently: "I sometimes think the original sin of this industry, the thing that holds it back the most, is that we refuse to move on… The industry is not kind to new ideas. New ideas can struggle… I think we could do better nurturing the new books that will become the mainstay of the future…" It sounds like he, and Image, are walking the walk and doing everything they can to support and boost a new era of creator-owned "new ideas." And it's paying off.

In March, a slate of team-up variant covers across Image Comics titles will feature Mark Grayson, Atom Eve, Omni-Man and more from the world of Invincible, crashing the realities of other Image universes with cameo appearances on covers and title logos redesigned to echo the Invincible look.

Wednesday, March 4:

1. The Department of Truth #36 Cover D Invincible Team-Up variant by Martin Simmonds – Lunar Code 0126IM8041
2. Narco #1 Cover D Invincible Team-Up variant by Dan Hillyard & Dave Stewart – Lunar Code 0126IM8056
3. Rook Exodus #10 Cover E Invincible Team-Up variant by Jason Fabok & Brad Anderson – Lunar Code 1225IM8053
4. The Walking Dead Deluxe #132 Cover F Invincible Team-Up variant by David Finch – Lunar Code 0126IM8062

Wednesday, March 11

1. Assorted Crisis Events #9 Cover C Invincible Team-Up variant by Eric Zawadzki – Lunar Code 0126IM8038
2. Blood & Thunder #11 Cover E Invincible Team-Up variant by E.J. Su & Michele Msassyk Assarasakorn – Lunar Code 0126IM8039
3. Die Loaded #5 Cover C Invincible Team-Up variant by Chloe Brailsford – Lunar Code 0126IM8081
4. D'orc #2 Cover C Invincible Team-Up variant by Brett Bean – Lunar Code 0126IM8042
5. Free Planet #10 Cover C Invincible Team-Up variant by Jed Dougherty – Lunar Code 0126IM8046
6. Geiger #22 Cover D Invincible Team-Up variant by Gary Frank & Brad Anderson – Lunar Code 0126IM8047
7. G.I. Joe A Real American Hero #326 Cover D Invincible Team-Up variant by Chris Mooneyham – Lunar Code 0126IM8050
8. The Seasons #9 Cover C Invincible Team-Up variant by Paul Azaceta – Lunar Code 0126IM8058
9. Spawn #373 Cover C Invincible Team-Up variant by Brett Booth – Lunar Code 1025IM8176
10. Transformers #30 Cover F Invincible Team-Up variant by Josh Cassara – Lunar Code 0126IM8060
11. Witchblade (2024) #19 Cover E Invincible Team-Up variant by Giuseppe Cafaro – Lunar Code 0126IM8065

Wednesday, March 18

1. The Darkness (2025) #4 Cover D Invincible Team-Up variant by Ed Benes – Lunar Code 1225IM8051
2. Exquisite Corpses #11 Cover H Invincible Team-Up variant by Michael Walsh – Lunar Code 0126IM8043
3. Ghost Pepper #9 Cover F Invincible Team-Up variant by Ludo Lullabi – Lunar Code 0126IM8048
4. G.I. Joe #20 Cover F Invincible Team-Up variant by Andrea Milan – Lunar Code 0126IM8049
5. Invincible Universe Battle Beast #7 Cover H Invincible Team-Up variant by Ryan Ottley & Annalisa Leoni – Lunar Code 0126IM8052
6. Kaya #34 Cover C Invincible Team-Up variant by Wes Craig – Lunar Code 0126IM8054
7. Super Creepshow #1 Cover E Invincible Team-Up variant by Rossi Gifford – Lunar Code 0126IM8059
8. The Walking Dead Deluxe #133 Cover E Invincible Team-Up variant by Charlie Adlard – Lunar Code 0126IM8063
9. Wrestle Heist #4 Cover B Invincible Team-Up variant by Kyle Starks – Lunar Code 0126IM8066
10. Redcoat #17 Cover D Invincible Team-Up variant by Bryan Hitch & Brad Anderson  – Lunar Code 1125IM9106

Wednesday, March 25

1. Invincible Universe Capes #5 Cover F Invincible Team-Up variant by Mark Englert – Lunar Code 0126IM8053
2. Death Fight Forever #2 Cover D Invincible Team-Up variant by Andrew MacLean – Lunar Code 0126IM8040
3. Feral #21 Cover E Invincible Team-Up variant by Tony Fleecs & Trish Forstner – Lunar Code 0126IM8044
4. Final Boss #5 Cover G Invincible Team-Up variant by Tyler Kirkham – Lunar Code 0126IM8045
5. Hyde Street #11 Cover D Invincible Team-Up variant by Ivan Reis & Brad Anderson  – Lunar Code 0825IM8447
6. I Hate Fairyland #49 Cover D Invincible Team-Up variant by Skottie Young – Lunar Code 0126IM8051
7. Malevolent #3 Cover B Invincible Team-Up variant by John Bivens & Felipe Sobreiro – Lunar Code 0126IM8055
8. Void Rivals #28 Cover F Invincible Team-Up variant by Lorenzo de Felici – Lunar Code 0126IM8061
9. White Sky #2 Cover C Invincible Team-Up variant by JP Mavinga – Lunar Code 0126IM8064
10. Youngblood (2025) #5 Cover E Invincible Team-Up variant by Rob Liefeld – Lunar Code 0126IM8067

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